Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Bernie Sanders "News" not on Cable News

[* Editor's note: Updates to this post are in the "comments' below. There's a reason Bernie's not mentioned much on cable news — because the big 6 corporations that control 90% of the media don't want him elected — because if we were to ever have a "progressive" majority in Congress, Bernie would raise taxes on the media elitists.

Former Rep. Allen West (R-Florida) once called "progressive members" of Congress (those that caucus with the Democrats) "communists". If that were the case, then FDR was also a communist — and FDR had won the vast majority of the States in 4 consecutive elections. Here are the election results for the Communist/Socialist/Progressive presidential candidate that the media would be fear-mongering today.

The mainstream media (and Hillary Clinton's supporters within the Democratic Party Machine) also likes to emphasize Bernie as a "Socialist" (not a "democratic socialist" — or that he caucuses with "progressive" Democrats). But the corporate mainstream media (and the pro-corporate Democrats) have nothing to fear but fear itself.]

The Bernie news that you might have missed...

Think Progress (September 1, 2015) [*Editor's note: This is an article about how the manipulative corporate media uses negative and misleading headlines to deceive readers about Bernie Sanders.] The irony is that while many journalists are using doomy headlines, the articles themselves tend to be optimistic. But because of how the headlines are worded, that optimism may not translate to readers. According to a study published by the Journal of Experimental Psychology, a misleading headline can cause readers to remember the details in line with the headline better than those that weren’t.

Huffington Post (September 1, 2015) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Tweets Support For Bernie Sanders. He tweets: "Down on Republicans and Democrats #Bernie2016 #FeelTheBern"

Politico (August 30, 2015) The Rapper Who Loves Bernie Sanders: Lil B has emerged as one of Bernie Sanders’ most ardent supporters, taking to Twitter and getting booked as a TV talking head campaigning for the senator. For an underestimated insurgent candidate who’s drawing some of the biggest crowds of the primary, it’s perhaps a fitting pairing: While Hillary Clinton has been taking selfies with Kanye West and attracting official and unofficial endorsements from Snoop Dogg and BeyoncĂ©, Sanders’ hip hop supporters tend to be more underground figures. (Killer Mike, a politically outspoken anti-establishment rapper and activist, has also endorsed the senator.)

Reno Gazette Journal (August 18, 2015) In Reno, the little gaming town in Northern Nevada that bills itself as "The Biggest Little City in the World", Senator Bernie Sanders drew a crowd of 4,500 people to the UNR campus. (Video at YouTube)

Rolling Stone (September 1, 2015) Stephen Colbert continues to map out his opening weeks at the helm of the Late Show as Willie Nelson, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson of Broad City, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and the Dead Weather will all visit the refurbished Ed Sullivan Theatre for Colbert's second week [Sanders will appear on the show on Sept. 18, which happens to be just two days after the CNN Republican Primary Debate on Sept. 16.]

Huffington Post (September 1, 2015) The political (specifically Democrat) machine doesn't want a Bernie Sanders nomination. The machine likes safe, middle-of-the-road candidates. Boat rockers always appeal to the fringes, but never the masses. Donald Trump is currently leading the Republican candidates, and his supporters love the way he speaks his mind and is unfiltered. This might not be a popular statement, but Bernie Sanders is the Trump of the left. He's not being called out as being such, because his thoughts are rooted in intelligence. Trump gives wonderful sound bites about war heroes and immigrants; Sanders discusses student loans.

CNN (August 30, 2015) Hillary Clinton has far more money, name recognition, endorsements and political experience than any of her Democratic rivals. Her legion of high-profile supporters have made the case that she will inevitably win the Democratic nomination for president. But a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation: It's not time (yet) for all-out political panic, but Clinton and her team have very good reasons to be worried about the sharp and steady rise in support for presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Politico (September 1, 2015) Driven by fears that the powerful SEIU labor union is close to announcing an endorsement of Hillary Clinton, a contingent of Bernie Sanders supporters within the SEUI union is petitioning the organization's international executive board to hold off on endorsing a candidate. With SEIU’s executive committee set to meet in mid-September, a growing number of hard-core Sanders supporters have become more vocal about urging union brass to withhold a Democratic primary endorsement at this stage in the race. Close to 300 SEIU leaders, members, retirees and staff have signed the petition urging the union to hold off. Some SEIU members are publicly affiliated with a volunteer group called Labor for Bernie and worry that the union’s endorsement for Clinton would hamper their activities. Top SEIU officials are also keenly aware of the revolt among rank-and-file teachers who publicly called on the American Federation of Teachers to withdraw its endorsement of Clinton last July, claiming there had been little internal discussion with teachers before the union backed Clinton. At one large local SEIU affiliate, staff were told to quell dissent from Sanders’ supporters, a labor source said. With 2 million health care workers, public service workers and property services workers, including food service workers, SEIU represents powerful political muscle and is one of the biggest labor players in the race.

The AFL-CIO — the nation's largest labor union — hasn't endorsed Bernie Sanders either. Maybe because they usually endorse whoever wins the Democratic nomination. But this wasn't on cable news either (or was it?)

  • In These Times: Union Members Seem To Want Bernie Sanders Over Hillary Clinton. Will Labor Leadership Follow Them?
  • Politico: AFL-CIO leader tries to quell pro-Sanders revolt

The Observer (September 1, 2015) Bernie Sanders’ Secret Weapon: In an excellent story in the New York Times on Tuesday, which should have been on the front page but wasn’t, the Times reported what I asserted in the Observer in June: that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) can win the Iowa caucus. Soon the major media will be catching up to the powerful phenomenon of the Bernie Sanders campaign, which embodies the progressive surge that remains the best-kept secret among political insiders and pundits about the state of American politics in 2016. The secret weapon of Bernie Sanders is people.

Huffington Post (September 1, 2015) Polling Trajectory Shows Bernie Sanders Winning the Democratic Nomination. It's Time for America to Notice. Even FiveThirtyEight now says We Got Berned, and while concerns about name recognition and polling among minority voters still exist, only Bernie Sanders has a Racial Justice platform praised by Black Lives Matter, and only Vermont's Senator has the support of Cornell West, "Killer Mike", and "Lil B". Senator Bernie Sanders will win the Democratic nomination in 2016 not only because he can type an email without nationwide controversy, but also because he's exhibited a monumental surge in the polls. This ascent within the hearts and minds of Democrats began several months ago, and will only continue with greater name recognition.

The Nation (September 1, 2015) [Editor's note: About the electoral strategy for winning the White House) Bernie Sanders Lays Down 2016’s New Electoral Math: “I think you’re looking at the candidate who can substantially increase voter turnout all across the country.” [It also shows Sanders stronger in beating GOP candidates.]

Three Centrist/Third Way Democrats — Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton — are three peas in a pod (Click image below for full-size poster)

Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton support TPP.

Because Bernie Sanders' popularity is soaring, some Hillary supporters are running scared and making shallow attacks against Bernie...

But first, one question: Knowing what we know now, if we were in the 1960's today, would you want the U.S. to go to war with Vietnam? President Bill Clinton opposed that war and dodged the draft. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney supported that war, and also dodged the draft. President George W. Bush avoided combat by spending his time stateside in the National Guard. While Bernie Sanders had applied for "conscientious objector" status during the Vietnam War.

Hot Air: Hillary supporters seem to be getting desperate enough to lob some actual shots across Bernie Sanders’ bow now, and one of them was an accusation that he tried to secure conscientious objector status to keep himself out of the Vietnam war.

ABC News: Last week, the Des Moines Register ran a column from a Hillary Clinton supporter and Vietnam veteran titled How can Sanders be commander in chief?

"My question as a Vietnam veteran is: How on earth could a person claiming to be a conscientious objector become the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world?"

According to a profile from the Vermont Senator's hometown newspaper, the Burlington Free Press, his conscientious objector status application was eventually rejected, but by then Sanders was too old to be drafted.*

[ * Editor's note: On December 1, 1969 the U.S. Selective Service System conducted two lotteries to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for men born from 1944 to 1950. Bernie was born September 8, 1941 — and was already 28 years old when the draft was first initiated. So I'm not sure why Bernie would have had to apply for "conscientious objector" status. But being so close to the border of Canada (living in Vermont) at least Bernie didn't flee to Ted Cruz's home country ... or like Mitt Romney, flee to France.

Full Disclosure: I'm only one person, so naturally I can't be watching all three major cable news stations (Fox, CNN and MSNBC) 24/7 (more if you count HLN, PBS, etc.) — but I switch through them all during the day, and they often repeat the same stories. So if you've seen these stories I posted on cable news, they were "news" to me! If there's something good I missed, you can leave a comment. Maybe after Bernie gets elected in 2016, he'll be on the cable news stations more often ;)

Hillary Got Berned (YouTube)

Are Hillary and Biden BFFs? "One of us will be the next president."
Hillar and Biden: BFFs

9 comments:

  1. From Politico (a very interesting political phenomenon)

    They think Donald Trump’s ideas are “disgusting.” They think he is making a mockery of the American political system — and that even he doesn’t take his own candidacy seriously. And that is exactly why they say they plan to vote for him. Meet Trump’s protest voters. These Trump voters come from both ends of the political spectrum — and from nowhere on it. Their motivations differ, but they are united by both antipathy and a lack of regard for the man they say has their vote. Trump himself predicted he would win support from his political opponents: "I think I’ll have a lot of Democrats voting for me,” he said on CNN on Tuesday night. If the phenomenon is widespread, it would bolster the belief among campaign experts, baffled by his sustained strength, that a sizable chunk of those who are professing support for Trump are motivated by anger at the system, not love for the candidate.

    [MY NOTE: While the article doesn't say so, I suspect that if Bernie isn't nominated (and Hillary is, despite the popular vote), out of spite they might vote for a GOP candidate like Trump instead — just to give the finger to the Democratic Party Machine, while screwing the GOP Party Machine at the same time.]

    http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/donald-trump-2016-protest-campaign-disdain-213247

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  2. Coders for Bernie

    Daniela Perdomo, is a co-founder of the websites www.feelthebern.org and www.voteforbernie.org (they are both awesome!) Recently she was on MSNBC discussing the websites -- the video here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpdOds5ARGw

    And here's a post by Daniela Perdomo at Medium about building the website www.feelthebern.org

    https://medium.com/@danielaperdomo/bernie-sanders-why-framing-is-everything-ad2e207cbf95

    Today she was featured in a post at the New York Times about the websites: Legion of Tech Volunteers Lead a Charge for Bernie Sanders (A must read. Her website had more than a million page views in its first two weeks.)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/us/politics/bernie-sanders-presidential-campaign-tech-supporters.html

    Here’s custom interactive map (by coders for Sanders) of events and rallies:

    http://www.bernie2016events.org/

    As an aside: "The DNC has threatened to exclude candidates from its debates if they take part in a non-sanctioned gathering ... Though Sanders has been vocal about wanting more debates, aides say his campaign is more reticent to cross the DNC, reasoning that a chance to appear with O'Malley and other lower-polling Democrats is not worth the risk of losing his shots on stage with Clinton."

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/03/sanders-campaign-cool-to-omalleys-more-aggressive-approach-to-forcing-more-debates/

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  3. There was recently a disgusting interview of Bernie by Andrea Mitchell. She tried desperately to bait Bernie into attacking Hillary and to his credit, he stuck to getting his policies across and refused to get into the gutter.

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  4. UPDATE:

    SEPT 4, 2015 -- Why Is DNC Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz afraid of Bernie Sanders debating Hillary Clinton?

    Great article!!! I Tweeted and shared on Facebook.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/why-is-dnc-chairwoman-afraid-of-bernie-sanders-and-martin-omalley-debating-hillary-clinton_b_8087334.html

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  5. UPDATE: On "All in with Chris Hayes" last night (Sept. 2, 2015) to show his audience who Bernie Sanders is, MSNBC showed a clip to depict Bernie Sanders as a sickly old man – with a raspy voice, drinking bottled water and coughing during a speech. (Bernie has been on the road a lot and doing a lot of talking.)

    Of all the videos Chris Hayes could have used, MSNBC used that particular clip. The pro-DNC mainstream media is cheering for Hillary, and subliminally trying to put Bernie in a bad light.

    Joy Reid -- a big Hillary supporter and a guest on "All in with Chris Hayes" --- was talking about Bernie Sanders. The video I mentioned that MSNBC aired of Bernie Sanders isn't seen, but you can get the gist of the conversation in this article here:

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2015/09/04/msnbcs-hayes-reid-tout-devoted-diehard-hillary-fans-we-tend

    Chris Hayes, Joy Reid Tout 'Devoted Diehard' Hillary Fans 'We Tend To Underestimate' In The Media

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmh-8PatrbM

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  6. UPDATE: NPR made Sanders an "unperson" ... at least for NPR listeners.

    NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson performed acrobatics before a live audience of radio listeners today (9/2/15) — twisting herself into a pretzel to avoid mentioning (whisper) Bernie Sanders and his stunning campaign successes. Her four-minute piece focused on Joe Biden and whether or not he would choose to enter the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. But halfway through, she veered to the existing Dem field — but mentioned only one name: Clinton.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/03/1417908/-Today-NPR-made-Sanders-an-unperson-at-least-for-NPR-listeners

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  7. Katrina vanden Heuvel of "The Nation" appeared on Ed Schultz’s podcast to discuss Joe Biden’s viability and Bernie Sanders’s continued surge in the polls. The mainstream media, she argued, need to acknowledge the force behind the Sanders campaign: “So much of the media defines for people what is viable, and in that they do a great disservice.”

    YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS! (Starting at about the 15-minute mark.)

    http://www.thenation.com/article/is-there-room-for-biden-in-the-democratic-field/

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  8. Poll Update on Sept. 10, 2015

    New Hampshire:
    Bernie Sanders 41%
    Hillary Clinton 32%

    Iowa:
    Bernie Sanders 41%
    Hillary Clinton 40%

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